The cable television industry's big national meeting in New Orleans this week heralds a burgeoning revolution on the small screen, as the best scripted dramas and comedies on TV migrate away from the traditional broadcast networks.

High channel numbers rule for the next four days in New Orleans, as the National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA) gathers 15,000 citizens of the multichannel universe for the annual Cable Show.

Actually, high channel numbers rule everywhere.

The timing of the cable industry confab puts it squarely at the tail end of the worst broadcast-television season ever.

Worst in ratings, worst in show quantity, worst in show quality.

The 2007-2008 TV season stumbled to a start -- "Cavemen," anyone? -- then got kneecapped by the three-month writers strike.

Audiences for the handful of high-quality scripted successes on broadcast TV largely lost interest during the shutdown.

Overall, only Fox, propelled by "American Idol," has better ratings this season than last.

Worse -- and not unrelated to Hollywood's labor mess -- when the TV season concludes next week, not even half of Nielsen's Top 20 will be scripted dramas and comedies.

Starting with HBO's "The Wire," "Big Love" and "In Treatment" and in a line running through AMC's "Mad Men" and "Breaking Bad," Showtime's "Dexter," "The Tudors," "Weeds" and "Californication," Sci Fi's "Battlestar Gallactica," FX's "Damages," "The Riches" and "Rescue Me" and Turner's "The Closer" and "Saving Grace," cable is winning the quality-TV derby so widely right now that broadcast's best-of candidates, fine as they are -- and ABC's "Lost," Fox's "House" and NBC's "The Office" and "30 Rock" are still quite fine -- fight for shelf life on discerning DVRs.

Remember when cable was HBO, ballgames and "A Few Good Men" running on an endless loop somewhere?

"I do think there is sort of a critical mass of good stuff," said Matthew Blank, Showtime chairman and CEO. "Having said that, I always feel bad for the broadcast networks, (because) everything's measured against them. I think over the past couple of years, there's been a lot of good new stuff on the broadcast networks, some of the best shows on television in terms of writing and overall performances.

"We are seeing some really good things in the cable space. We really think we are at a tipping point right now for Showtime in the past year. There's enough really good stuff, it goes beyond a 'Weeds' or a 'Dexter' and becomes Showtime, it becomes a brand, a place where you see all this great stuff. We know our brand is as strong as it's ever been."

From Showtime -- which has added more than 1 million subscribers in the past year, to more than 15 million total -- on down, ratings are surging all along the cable dial, as is cable's palette of original programming.

This week in New York, during the same "upfronts" festival of promotion at which the broadcast networks announced their 2008-09 seasons, the Turner cable networks introduced a huge slate of new scripted dramas and comedies.

Enlisted in the effort, among others, are George Clooney, executive producing "Delta Blues," about a Memphis cop who's also an Elvis impersonator; Steven Bochco, creator of "Hill Street Blues" and "NYPD Blue," who's producing the legal drama "Raising the Bar"; Timothy Hutton of "Ordinary People," who will star in the drama "Leverage"; Ray Romano of "Everybody Loves Raymond," who will star in "Men of a Certain Age"; and Eric McCormack of "Will & Grace" and Tom Cavanagh of "Ed," who will star in the drama "Truth in Advertising," all for TNT. William H. Macy of "Fargo" fame will executive produce a new comedy for TBS.

Earlier in the year, Lifetime announced a development slate of seven dramas and three comedies to accompany "Army Wives," which returns for its second season June 8.

Andrea Wong, Lifetime president and CEO, observed the beginnings of the quality migration to cable as an executive for ABC, where she oversaw specials and alternative and late-night programming.

"I really think it was a few summers ago," said Wong, whose network was also the recent recipient of the buzz machine "Project Runway," defecting from Bravo. "When you saw repeats on the broadcast networks no longer holding up as well because people were flocking to originals on cable.

"To me, that was really the watershed moment, a couple of years of really dramatic drops in broadcast ratings in the summer."

Now, she added, "I think you're seeing producers realize that cable would be a great outlet for scripted series. There's a greater likelihood of getting on the air when you develop in cable. And you have a tremendous amount of creative freedom in cable."

Richard Drew/AP PhotoActress Kyra Sedgwick, of the TNT television series "The Closer," a show that's been a hit for TNT.

Blank, who on Tuesday night will receive a NCTA Vanguard Award for industry leadership, said Showtime has clearly benefited from cable's blossoming acceptance among Hollywood's creative community.

"We're seeing something that's really never happened historically with Showtime," he said. "We think an awful lot of the great stuff is coming to us first. We're not the first stop in Hollywood historically, and that doesn't mean we weren't able to do good things, but one of the positive impacts that you get from all this is that people are knocking on our door first with the type of projects that Showtime wants to do.

Among the series Showtime is currently developing are a comedy starring Edie Falco of "The Sopranos," and "United States of Terror," created by "Juno" author Diablo Cody and executive produced by Steven Spielberg.

"This," Blank said, "is not the same old Showtime."

Or the same old cable.

TV columnist Dave Walker can be reached at dwalker@timespicayune.com or (504) 826-3429.

Cable visitors plan good deeds

The Cable Show was scheduled for New Orleans in spring 2006 but shifted to Atlanta in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

In addition to the usual trade-show stuff -- state-of-the-industry panel discussions, show-floor deal-making and tech seminars -- the sponsoring National Cable & Telecommunications Association will celebrate the show's return to town by staging several recovery-related events. C-Span has already done a book drop for local public libraries.

Saturday and Sunday, cable industry workers will volunteer at several local schools, rebuilding playgrounds and libraries.

At midday Saturday, the Sportsman Channel and Safari Club International will serve up a free hot meal -- venison meatballs with all the trimmings -- at the Ozanam Inn.

Also Saturday, The Gospel Channel will distribute food at Greater St. Stephen's Full Gospel Baptist Church. And Tuesday evening, cable workers will participate in a battle of the bands fundraiser, headlined by The Paul Allen Band.